Unexpected finding opens up new way to stop autoimmune diseases and transplant rejection
Thursday, January 22, 2009 - 12:42
in Health & Medicine
After several years of battling recurring infections, the last thing a patient and her doctors ever expected was that the cause of her problems might actually help millions live longer, more active lives. Now, researchers have high hopes because Edward Goetzl and his colleagues from the University of California and The Ohio State University discovered that the patient made a unique antibody to her own T cells, the cells that mediate much of autoimmunity. Acting on the surface of T cells via a novel mechanism, the antibody reduced the number of T cells in her blood stream: a result that usually requires a host of "immunosuppressive" and possibly toxic drugs.
